#voyager investigations

[weaverofink]

How are we feeling about the news

[glitterfiasco]

"There was a boy called Eustace Winner, and he almost deserved it. His parents called him Eustace and masters called him Winner. I can’t tell you how his friends spoke to him, for he had none." 

[sshbpodcast]

Character Spotlight: Neelix

By Ames

At some point, the Star Trek fan base decided the worst main character of the franchise is Neelix – he’s obnoxious, his jokes don’t land, he’s dating a two-year-old, he looks like that. But if you actually, I dunno, watch the show, your hosts here at A Star to Steer Her By found that Neelix might be one of the most complex, consistent, and realistic characters on the show. Even Caitlin, who started our Voyager watchthrough disliking him, ended it bathed in the Talaxian love.

So get off the hate train and give the guy the open mind he deserves. He’s only trying to help the friends he met in the Delta Quadrant while battling some of the harshest mental demons the show has given to a character. Not to mention that Ethan Phillips gets to show his dramatic range show by show, comic relief one day, and emotionally destroyed the next. Check out both sides of the Neelix character below – the good and the bad – listen to our debate on this week’s podcast episode (stroll over to 51:16), and make your own decision! We’ll see you in the mess hall!

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Best moments

Now I am become death, destroyer of Talaxians The first season of Voyager is already digging deep into Neelix’s tragic backstory when “Jetrel” reveals that his whole family was taken out by the titular character’s metreon cascade. The whole episode is Neelix facing the man who killed so many Talaxians, and also facing his own deep guilt. When he forgives the dying Jetrel, he’s really forgiving himself and finally moving on.

There’s nothing like a family reunion We’ll have more to say about “Parturition” in our next section, but we start to see Neelix the caregiver in his interactions with the newly hatched dino puppet. Not only do we see an end to the entirely stupid love triangle between Neelix, Kes, and Tom, but we glimpse how much Neelix puts other people before himself when he pushes to save the baby monster thing.

I’m going to have plenty of material for tomorrow’s Briefing With Neelix Neelix’s nosiness, while frequently one of his more annoying traits, ends up paying off in “Investigations” when he uncovers the mole who’s been making contact with Seska and those wily Kazons. Not only does Neelix put himself at risk by going undercover, but he also ends up murdering that saboteur Jonas by throwing him into a plasma fire like a badass!

The 299th Rule of Acquisition: Whenever you exploit someone, it never hurts to thank them Ethan Phillips sure knows how to play a Ferengi, having portrayed Farek in “Ménage à Troi.” But Neelix himself also plays a damn good Ferengi, totally pulling off the Grand Proxy / Holy Pilgrim in “False Profits.” He initially fools Arridor and Kol with his quick thinking and improv, and when the game is rumbled, succeeds in protecting the Takarians from their Ferengi ploy.

What’s this week’s legend, Olmec? While overall we found “Sacred Ground” to be an unfocused and confounding mess, Neelix is still strong in it nonetheless! He does everything in his power to support the effort to get Kes out of her supernatural coma. Most importantly, he figures out the loophole via an old anecdote about an ancient king requesting an audience with the spirits, which Janeway pounces on.

I’m tired of being the target of all your hostility Sure, most of the time, you can view Neelix’s interactions with Tuvok as insufferable and tone deaf (much like I frequently find Archer’s constant needling of T’Pol in Enterprise), but it comes from a place of love and respect. It takes Tuvok several seasons to reciprocate this and it all starts in “Rise” when Neelix finally stands up for himself to the tactless Vulcan.

Intergalactic House of Pancakes As the Voyager’s morale officer, Neelix commonly goes out of his way to support his fellow crew members. It’s something a ship’s counselor should be doing, but we don’t have one of those. So Neelix takes it upon himself to offer comfort food (like blood pie in “Day of Honor” and banana pancakes in “Extreme Risk”), a shoulder to cry on, or his body in the form of a punching bag.

Flotter and the Crashed Shuttlepod We get more of caregiver Neelix in his relationship with Naomi Wildman throughout the show. As the girl’s godfather, he’s the only one who can get her to bed at night, with stories of the Great Forest in “Mortal Coil.” But he truly shines in “Once Upon a Time” when his impulse is to protect her from the possibility her mother could die, but it ends with both he and Naomi growing when he learns that being honest with her will help them better survive trauma together.

When is a Vulcan no longer a Vulcan? We loved the vulnerable, un-Vulcan Tuvok in “Riddles” and we love Neelix in this episode even more. Once again, he shows what a great caregiver he is by selflessly caring for others. It’s even more personal because the Tuvok-Neelix relationship has built over the show, so Neelix’s support of his friend really pulls at your heartstrings, especially with the heart-wrenching ending.

See anyone you know? Neelix gets two different farewell scenes with Kes in Voyager. The first is a touching goodbye in “The Gift” when they know Kes is transcending to a new type of Ocampan. The second might be the only good moment from the deeply problematic “Fury” in which a tormented Kes is rampaging around the ship but Neelix treats her with the affection and empathy he always has.

She’s a fine specimen of Klingon womanhood I ran out of room in the EMH post to include how uncomfortable I felt when he insists Harry Kim bang Officer Ch’Rega in “Prophecy” even though it’s clear Kim doesn’t consent. But you know who’s down to clown with a Klingon mistress? Neelix! He successfully gets the tall drink of bloodwine off of Harry’s ass and onto his own. Everyone wins! Qapla’!

Coming full circle Neelix’s character gets the perfect ending in “Homestead.” See above how we started the series with Neelix feeling guilty that he wasn’t there during the Talaxian-Haakonian war and accepting that he’ll never go home again. And here we see him off after he’s saved a lost Talaxian colony and gets to rejoin his people. It’s the most complete character arc of the show.

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Worst moments

Always let your scavenger be your guide This isn’t all to say Neelix is a perfect angel. We first meet him when he’s scavenging around in “Caretaker,” and the very first thing he does is trick the Voyager into helping him free Kes from the Kazons who have captured her. Which is admirable, mind you, but he goes about it through deception and cunning. Not the best impression to make for the first time we encounter him.

Your ceiling is hideous This is one of those moments that isn’t entirely Neelix’s fault, but is definitely bad for him. What’s a better way to respond to having your lungs stolen from you as his were in “Phage”? I’m not sure, but it’s probably not constantly whining, wallowing in self pity, and accusing Kes of having an affair with Tom. Not a good look, though I certainly can’t say I’d handle it much better.

You don’t know where I was the night Rinax was destroyed As we said above, Neelix’s backstory that comes out in “Jetrel” really deepens his character. It’s also where we learn that he dodged the draft during the Talaxian-Haakonian war. I can’t judge him for hiding from a war he doesn’t believe in, but I sure can judge him for lying for many years that he was actually in the defense forces because he was ashamed for being a coward.

Get the cheese to sickbay This one’s just silly. What a strange development that it turns out the reason the ship is malfunctioning all over the place in “Learning Curve” is because the brill cheese Neelix whipped up to attempt to make macaroni and cheese. The schplict that Neelix brings on board infects the bio-neural circuitry of the ship, and it feels like a joke more than anything else.

Order the diapers. We’re about to become parents. Let’s put aside the “Kes is only two years old!” argument that we’ve had on the podcast myriad times, and instead have the “Neelix is a possessive and selfish partner” argument that’s actually warranted. In “Elogium,” when Kes is going through a traumatic life stage that forces her to decide if she’s ready to have children, Neelix somehow makes it all about him, which is gross.

How do you know where everyone’s quarters are? Speaking of Neelix being a bad boyfriend, he continues to be a controlling, jealous piece of shit in “Twisted.” Not only does he whine when Tom gives Kes a birthday present, but he also accuses her of being the town pump because her eidetic memory makes her remember where everyone’s quarters are. And then he vanishes randomly and we never get an apology!

Food fight! Most of these bad Neelix moments are clumped in the first couple of seasons, and that’s because it’s here at “Parturition” that the writers realized they needed to stop leaning on the jealous boyfriend trope and fix the Neelix-Paris relationship. It really was that bad. They were such children, starting a food fight over Kes and acting like animals during mating season.

No bone about it Remember how we gave Chakotay credit for not going out of his way not to desecrate a gravesite in “Emanations”? Apparently Neelix has no such qualms. He’s really gung ho to make some tools out of some humanoid bones he and Hogan find in “Basics.” And sadly for us, it ends up with Hogan getting killed by whatever monster or other left those bones there!

None of us knows what’s coming This episode would have made way more sense if it happened a season earlier. By “Fair Trade,” midway through season three, Neelix should know better that he doesn’t have to prove himself around his found family on the Voyager. But instead, he throws Tom and Chakotay under the bus and threatens his own life so he can get a map and continue to be the quadrant expert.

You sound as though you’re saying goodbye It’s not often that you’ll find one of our moments be a scene that didn’t happen. When Neelix resorts to a certainly suicidal plan to trick the black market dealers in “Fair Trade,” he thinks he’s going to die, but he never has a scene with Kes. I can’t forgive the writers for cutting a scene of him saying goodbye to Kes, who has ONE inconsequential line in the whole episode.

I want to hear about the Great Forest again If we can give Torres shit for how poorly she deals with trauma in “Extreme Risk,” then we can also share the disapproval for Neelix with how abysmally he deals with his mortality in “Mortal Coil,” as he nearly spaces himself. This is another reason why it’s clear the Voyager needs a counselor because even if the crew knew how to ask for help (they don’t), there’s no one to ask.

All we need now is a mark Being such a people person, Neelix also gets himself into trouble by being way too trusting. He easily falls for Dala’s nun story in “Live Fast and Prosper” like an absolute rube. And then when he and Tom are trying to prove they’re not rubes, Neelix picks the EMH to play a shell game against, who is absolutely the wrong mark. What a couple of rubes.

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We’ve already had two helpings of Leola root and it’s time for dessert. Join us for more character spotlights as we continue through the Voyager manifest next week, and also keep following as we near the end of our Enterprise watch over on SoundCloud or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also join us in the mess hall over on Facebook and Twitter, and give Neelix the credit he deserves!

[grissomesque]

STAR TREK: VOYAGER 2.20 "Investigations" | 2.26 & 3.01 "Basics"

[bumblingbabooshka]

The Doctor turning into women and having romantic dalliances with men is every kind of queer...to me.

[whats-in-a-sentence]

Reepicheep ran forward, jumped on a chair and thence on to the table, and ran along it, threading his way as nimbly as a dancer between jeweled cups and pyramids of fruit and ivory salt-cellars.

"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" - C. S. Lewis

[pissfaggit]

1.and never forget how integral this is

[alexismusictrek]

Listening to “InvestiGates: Who do you think you are?”:

Gates: “Kate, your hair…” (proceeds to gush)

Kate: “Thank you. Ugh…used to be the body, then the face, and now the hair.”

HONEY ITS ALWAYS BEEN ALL THREE AND IT ALWAYS WILL BE EQDXZCKSKHRVEKDJD👏🏼🤯🤤

[starplusfourletters]

[Re-upload] I put subtitles on That Scene from "Investigations"  [Star Trek Voyager S02E20 crack]

Because when Janeway and Tuvok make an Intricate Plan it’s pretty much guaranteed to go off the rails immediately

[pilots-and-protons]

Absolutely obsessed with Tom Paris in “The Chute”, and both the dichotomy but also complete sincerity in both:

“If it comes down to it, you're going to save yourself, right? If you see a chance, just go. Don't come back for me.”

But also:

“Don’t leave me here.”

[spectraspecs-writes]

Imagine you went on a first date, you were nervous, you weren’t entirely sure how you felt and you haven’t yet arranged a second date and you’re not sure if it’s because you just haven’t gotten around to it yet or because you really don’t like the person you dated.

You go home, determined not to think about it. You’re just going to sit down, turn the TV on, and let yourself fade away. But you can’t do that, because they’re talking about your date on the evening news.

[peachlover94]

Scrap Anime Series Idea Stockpile (Collection 2)

Here are some more ideas for potential new anime series both in long/continuing and short/near-OVA/ONA (Original Video Animation/Original Net Animation) form!

My question to you, is, which of the following has the most potential that would be deserving to be seen on television or online?

Hash it out in the comments below which ideas jump out at you the most and seem like they'd be fun to see.

1) Aura of Infinity - In this dark, tragic yet heartwarming josei/seinen story, a young male-to-female trans lady named Aura Nagai lives with an abusive mother, father and sisters who descend from a group of followers of a paleoconservative extremist religious sect of Mahikari. Already shunned and looked at with suspicion by others in her family as well as her school peers, it is through Aura still demonstrating her kind heart that a Shinigami by the name of Izumi becomes Aura's Kami Godmother and grants her the powers and skills to become a Grim Reaper. Together, Aura and Izumi serve as partners in defending worthy humans from evil spirits and hunting down all the truly evil souls so they can be judged by kindly King Yama of the Afterlife. Even as the powers start destroying her sanity and body, Aura as a Reaper is determined to leave enough of a legacy freeing her from her family's tyranny for true friends.

2) Cross Coil Chisato - In this bishonen/bishojo magical girl series, a young girl from a rotten family named Chisato happens across a magical coil bracelet watch that lets her change form into anything she can think of and need by shouting "Cross Coil!". Sometimes her jaunts with transformation into other people/beings with their knowledge, powers and skills passed onto her are simply for fun and escape from her family to do something nice for her few friends in the know of her secret. At other times, innocent lives are on the line as she must remain one step ahead of the world authorities and the powers who seek the Cross Coil to either destroy or take control of the world. Only Chisato and her friends can learn to use the Cross Coil with wisdom and care to balance out the powerful energies it emits - but the need to protect it will soon force Chisato to go on the run and finally free herself from her past for all new chapters.

3) Electric Warriors Aesir - In this bishojo/josei fantasy isekai sentai series, the mysterious video game and consumer electronics developer Aesir sends out seven rainbow discs which are then picked up by seven girls curious about them and what they could do with running a disc on their own game systems or personal computers. Digitized into cyberspace Tron style, the girls find they have gained powers in both cyberspace and the real world to protect them both from the viruses of Ragnarok. Through their ups and downs of friendship and battling to make and protect new worlds for strangers online, these seven girls form an order of knight princesses who are look stylish and cute while tough under fire. They are the Electric Warriors of Aesir formed from one Opera Yellow (3DO coalition), Leona Red (Atari), Siri Pink (Apple), Cortana Green (Microsoft), Revol White (Nintendo), Dural Blue (Sega) and Neo Black (Sony).

4) Guen Takada, HSPI (High School Private Investigators) - The high school comedy hijinks of Azumanga Daioh and the increasingly incredulous detective mysteries of Detective Conan (Case Closed) crossed with the teen drama of Riverdale and 13 Reasons Why? What's not to like? In this eclectic shojo/shonen/seinen/josei series, Guen Takada is a jaded child prodigy in high school who decides to fill out her extracurricular activities by becoming a private eye to solve the high school mysteries that don't get solved. She forms the Roppongi High Private Eyes Agency with her group of friends who are a rotating set of partners who fill the regular high school social roles - academic athlete, a duo of preppy straight woman and slacker wise girl, innocent space case, intimidating shrinking violet, and a secret admirer of the shrinking violet. From drug busts, missing mascots and even a suicide; the RHPIs can cover it for you.

5) Inch-Son and the Magic Hammer - The bishonen/shonen epic inspired by the fairy tale of Issun-bōshi, the childless old governor of Kumamoto and his wife make a passing prayer for the Three Gods of the Sea for a child. The three sea gods in conference with their mentor the Empress Jingū decide to answer the couple's prayer and bless them with a child about an inch high whom they name Inch Son. One day, Inch Son decides to leave home and set out for the capital Tokyo to become a warrior defending the weak and advising both the Emperor and or Prime Minister so his family can avoid destitution. At the start of his journey, he uses objects his size to overcome different obstacles, including using his size to defeat a voracious psycho from the inside so he can save a girl. Using the magic hammer the psycho hoarded on himself to grow into an adult, Inch Son and Reika travel Japan with the hammer to protect innocents.

6) Killer Rage - In this dark josei/seinen drama inspired by various vigilante movies, Katsumi Poku is a former JSDF Special Ops officer who has retired to be a housewife and mother for her family in Sapporo. Her retirement is cut short when a turf war breaks out between major Yakuza syndicates trying to establish footholds on all the Japanese islands. With her children hospitalized and husband murdered, a burning rage simmers in Katsumi as she plans to enact her vigilante justice by causing the syndicates' war to boil over. With the help of a comrade of hers from the JASDF infiltrating the syndicates, Katsumi wages unconventional warfare upon the family bosses by planting evidence that their underlings are plotting to betray them. With her new "employers" wound up, she gets them vulnerable to offing each other while she also makes time to help innocents who have been done wrong by police on a syndicate's payrolls.

7) 108 Pearls Of Twelve Knights - In this shonen harem action isekai series, a young boy gets a shock when he discovers he is actually a young prince spirited away from the Genpei War of the Kamakura Period. This boy, Makito, is rescued from a posse of Yukaza by an onna-musha (female Samurai) named Zuina who takes him back through a portal in a sacred onsen for his own time to their ruined kingdom. The evil Daishogun Watarou has been seeking the powers of Shinigami and the storm god Susanoo to conquer the lands he has ravaged, and Watarou's rise can only be countered by the 108 pearls of Amaterasu herself. Makito is brought back to Zuina's Order of the Eleven, a motley group of female Samurai including herself who chose to join together to get Makito back and liberate their lands. Together, they shall overcome many obstacles to obtain the pearls to grant each possessor nine wishes and defeat evil Watarou.

8) Pathfinder Super Dimension Armada - In this josei/seinen mecha/military science fiction series being a spiritual continuation of Tatsunoko and Big West Advertising's joint venture in making the Super Dimension trilogy of programs some of which got adapted as Robotech by Harmony Gold, fleets of giant space arks set out from Earth and the Solar System to seek out and terraform new worlds for colonization. Captain Kiana (Quiana) Photon leads Pathfinder's Pioneer Ranger Corps in protecting planetary landing parties as well as leading defense of the mother ship and attacks on enemy forces in humanoid Star Fighter mechas. Kiana is to men and women of her 777th Legion/Squadron the "Spectrals" the big sister who flouts authority when orders cross ethical lines. But Kiana must pull everyone together to stand against forces of the Krona Patriarchy - an empire built on the suffering of all women and nonbinary slaves.

9) Rescue Me From My Family - In this dark josei/seinen story, a spotlight is shone on family abuse and the use of online technology to save lives whereby battered kids and sympathetic guardians can find an escape to better lives. Noriko Kawada, an ex-domestic abuse survivor in her own right, managed to serve in the JASDF and then become a relief pilot for the National Rescue Aid Society as we follow her on what appears to be yet another mission - sneak into a village near Rokkasho and smuggle a young femboy to freedom out from under the heels of his intolerant and psychotic parents. She takes off aboard her NRAS-operated Boeing 727 up to Aomori where her contact waits to help her spring the boy Mitsuru Kitano out. In doing so, they trigger a cult of angry extremist Mahikari determined to sacrifice him and other kids for their sins - and Noriko realizes she is going to make quite a mess if the kids are to be rescued.

10) Tactical Witches - In this new installment of Fumikane Shimada's military science fiction World Witches series, we follow the 555th Joint Fighter Wing stationed in Diamond Bay just in between Fuso and Liberion to protect the Aloha islands against Neuroi. Dispatched to help whip the 555th into shape, Akira Matsura of the Fuso Imperial Navy has to team with Jenny Doolittle of the Liberion Army Air Force in building up a fighter wing capable of protecting a series of fighter and bomber convoys to take out both Neuroi hives encroaching on Asia and the North and South American continents as well as radical fascistic terrorist movements all plotting to overthrow the League of Nations and all who champion democracy. What they do not expect, however, is a Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant who after being shown up by many women being more capable fighters is about to go Section 8 and become worse than Neuroi.

11) Voyage of the Galactic Railroad - Inspired by the novel by Kenji Miyazawa, this combo of shojo/shonen follows the eleven Miyazawa siblings (six boys, five girls) who join up with the Allied Galactic Railways' crew of train number 8444 - the Starway Limited - en route across known galaxies to search for the meaning of life. This comes as the Miyazawas themselves in the course of their odyssey that they are some of the last remnants of humanity in space with the Earth being destroyed by the Earth's ruling corporate classes pulling a Samson gambit to wipe out their enemies in the working and middle classes trying to topple their tyranny via all the thermonuclear weapons being hijacked. As the Miyazawas search for their parents while trying to be representatives and protectors of humanity and other endangered species, tight bonds are formed with the crew of the Starway Limited and its own engine numbered 8444.

12) Xeno Precinct - Imagine the high school dramedy of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and the speculative fiction (fantasy/horror/monster/mystery/science fiction) anthologies of say The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits along with cop shows like Starsky and Hutch. In a large metropolitan Japanese public high school, this josei/seinen drama follows a team of six boys and five girls who with the help of their teachers investigate the paranormal happenings and protect their city from horrors and invaders across spacetime. But whenever their club - the Xeno Precinct meets on Friday nights, they make sure to don black sunglasses and black pantsuits with white dress shirts before picking up the equipment to track down, scout out or eliminate any threats coming Earth's way. They do this as a way to keep the school funded for the next years or so by taking on service fees for keeping students safe from galactic psychos.

13) Zeo Amazon Electra - In this epic josei/seinen military science fiction mecha story, our Solar System is under the cruel grasp of the Solar Victors' Alliance with one planet and all its moons daring to fight back in pursuit of independence. A suicidal orphan girl named Naharu uncovers and bonds with a humanoid combat vehicle called a Zeo Amazon. This one, Electra, is one of the Pleiades - seven historic Zeo Amazons who once were the keepers of justice and peace in the Solar System's early days of colonization. Together with the Europa Vox forces, Naharu and Electra wage a campaign of terror on various colonies and outposts of the Victors in hopes of rescuing others who could bond with the six other sister Zeo Amazons to reform the Pleiades. Over the course of the war, however, Naharu finds she has a stalker in the Solar Victors' ace combat pilot Junpei Heracles who sees a dark future if the Pleiades ever return.

[sshbpodcast]

Character Spotlight: Tom Paris

By Ames

Strap in and get ready to go fast! A Star to Steer Her By has Tom Paris in the driver’s seat for this week’s character spotlight. Tom is a solid character throughout all of Voyager, with many faults that leave him room to develop over the seasons. He starts off as kind of a badboy with a heart of gold and grows into a good friend, loving husband, proud father, and designer of the Delta Flyer… who occasionally still dabbles into badboy with a heart of gold for fun.

Lt. Paris has a ton of hobbies (perhaps too many hobbies) for the show to mine for plots, but deep down, he’s just a guy with a ton of pressure on his shoulders, looking to redeem himself from past mistakes, and I give Voyager some credit for the Best Moments we’ll explore below, and even for some of the Worst Moments too. So pick a character from The Adventures of Captain Proton and hop in the holodeck with us as we highlight all things Paris below and on this week’s podcast episode (speed over to 55:35). Invaders! Invaders!

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Best moments

Am I discerning a personal problem here, gentlemen? We can’t be the only ones who hated the childish love triangle between Neelix, Kes, and Paris, and clearly the writers were sick of it too because they knew enough to fix it. Watching Paris and Neelix putting aside their differences in “Parturition,” while predictable and a little obvious, was exactly what their characters needed to get rid of that jealous rivalry no one asked for.

To infinity! And beyond! I will always defend “Threshold” … up until the last five or so minutes of the episode, which go off the rails. But up until then, we get so much great character work from Tom. His speech alone about how much pressure his father put on him to make something of himself and that’s why he needs to be the one to break the warp 10 barrier makes up for all the lizard babies out there.

Always make a pilot your wingman Paris is also just a good guy to all his friends on the ship, even the Doctor, with whom he’s constantly butting heads. So when the EMH is seeking advice for how to progress his relationship with Danara Pel in “Lifesigns,” Tom is there to suggest a trip to makeout point in the back of a Chevy convertible, which definitely does the trick!

There has been a spy aboard Voyager, but it isn’t Tom Paris While I was quick to give Tuvok some sass for how convoluted, dangerous, and bad his plan in “Investigations” was, Tom is what made it work in the end. He plays his part so well that he is able to foil Seska’s plan, expose the true traitor on the Voyager, and save the ship from attack by Kazons. And it is nice of him to apologize for all the insubordination part of the plan.

The cavalry’s here! Speaking of foiling Seska’s plans, Tom gets to save the day from her and the Kazons yet again in “Basics”! Where Chakotay was always too trusting of that secret Cardassian, Tom knows exactly where to tell Seska to shove it. His efforts allow him to escape the commandeered ship to bring back Talaxian reinforcements, sneak a message to the EMH, and thwart the Kazons for good!

I’m telling you again, he’s mine The friendship between Tom and Harry starts all the way back in the premier and comes a long way throughout Voyager, but it is on special display in “The Chute.” Tom protects Harry when he first arrives at the Akritirian prison, even getting stabbed to try to get them a chance at escaping, all while resisting the clamp that was agitating all the inmates’ minds.

Sexy, in a Howdy Doody sort of way You either enjoy or get fed up with the antics of an episode like “Future’s End,” but you’ve got to admit that Tom had chemistry like whoa with Rain Robinson. Watching two B movie fans geek out in the SETI lab was just endearing, and it makes me kinda wish we could have kept Rain around a little longer if only so she and Tom could play something silly on the holodeck.

If you let these instincts take over now, you’ll hate yourself We’ve scolded both Tuvok and Torres for their rapey actions in “Blood Fever” (and here’s an extra scold for Vorik, that dick), but the crew member who treats the situation correctly is Paris. He rightly declares that he will not take advantage of a person who has no ability to consent due to the pon farr, which should be a bar low enough for most people to easily clear.

You’ll miss the whole point of what it means to have a family Again we see Paris being a supportive friend in “Real Life” when the Doctor declares he’s shut down his holo-family program. Tom provides the human perspective that the Doc has needed and convinces him to let the rest of the story play out in a really lovely little peptalk. EMH really seems to get something out of experiencing both the good and the bad sides of real life.

Does the name Captain Bligh mean anything to you? While we were torn in our assessment of Chakotay’s handling of Annorax in “Year of Hell,” we know exactly where we stand on Tom’s approach: a standing ovation. Tom sticks to his guns in refusing to help the Krenim mess with the timeline, getting more blood on their hands. Instead, it’s his provoking Obrist to mutiny that ends up allowing Janeway to take them out in style!

Heavy is the chest that wears the puppet Though we’ll see in a moment that Tom does a lot of dumb things in his relationship with B’Elanna, they’re also a great match and truly love each other. We see this in “Nothing Human” when Torres is stuck under a puppet the entire episode, and Paris is at her bedside pretty much the whole time, being with her and keeping her spirits up.

I hereby reduce you to the rank of Ensign We, and many many fans apparently, have a jaded view of the Prime Directive sometimes. Tom is fully for breaking it in order to save the Moneans’ water planet in “Thirty Days,” standing up supportively for the little guy. So we frankly applaud his efforts, even if certain captains ensured they’d fail, when he tries to do what was morally right even if it breaks a frequently stupid rule.

—

Worst moments

At least he’s a step above Nick Locarno When we first meet Tom Paris in “Caretaker,” he’s in a Federation penal settlement in New Zealand, serving time for covering up a pilot error that caused the deaths of three other officers, which is a coward’s move even if he eventually fessed up to it. This sets him up for a character redemption arc, which I’ll at least say other Robbie McNeil–played characters don’t deserve.

Isn’t there some Indian trick where you can turn yourself into a bird and fly us out of here? What’s less forgivable is this line from “Caretaker” in which Tom makes some racist comment about Chakotay’s indigenous heritage that just comes off as crude. This line insinuating that Chakotay can turn into a bird comes absolutely out of nowhere and probably only serves to remind the audience that his character is Native American, and also that Tom is a tactless pig.

Birds of a feather, stick together On the subject of birds: whatever relationship Tom had with Lidell in “Ex Post Facto” was a terrible idea. Janeway talks so much smack to Harry when he has a consensual adult relationship with Tal in “The Disease,” when really she should have gotten on Tom’s case for having an affair with this molting bird woman who acts like a femme fatale out of a noir.

A whole crew full of women and I have to fall for the one I can’t have Another woman whom Paris really shouldn’t have gone for was Kes. We really don’t know what the writers were thinking with this love triangle, as it makes Tom look like a sleaze and Neelix look like a brute. Tom buys Kes a necklace in “Twisted,” when it was inappropriate as hell. And then “Parturition” starts with him moaning about his crush and being a big baby about it.

The house always wins Tom continues to look like a sleaze when he starts a sort of gambling ring for replicator rations in “Meld.” Tom’s sure got a lot of room to grow in this show because he does start off as this ne’er-do-well character, who is clearly taking advantage of his crewmates and pocketing all the replicator rations for himself because there’s never a winner of their little lottery pools.

Go, grease monkey, you’re burning up the quarter mile At some point, the show just decides Tom is going through a perpetual midlife crisis: adopting more hobbies than any other crewman; neglecting his duties, friends, and girlfriend; and generally seeming like a douche. And the episode that exemplifies this is “Vis à Vis,” in which he gets so fixated on fixing up a ‘69 Chevy Camaro that he becomes insufferable to everyone.

Building a new vessel from scratch, that’s an engineer's dream come true As I said last time, I mostly like Tom and B’Elanna as a couple, but every so often you wanna smack him for how oblivious he is. So while he does create the Delta Flyer in “Extreme Risk,” Paris ends up so distracted it makes him look like a buffoon because he hasn’t noticed that his partner has been having a crisis ever since learning months ago that her Maquis friends died.

The rain in Spain falls mainly in my brain This one’s mostly on the Doctor, but in case we don’t bring it up in a couple weeks when we spotlight his character, let’s blame Tom a little bit for this one too. The two of them make that inconsiderate bet about Pygmalion’ing Seven into a lady in “Someone to Watch Over Me,” and ya know what: she’s already great! Why these two men feel they need to fix her is frankly brutish.

Go ask Alice when she’s ten feet tall... and also a ship We remember from earlier in the show (and in this list!) how fixated Tom tends to get on his hobbies, bordering on obsessive behavior especially when it comes to cars and ships. So even though the eponymous ship in “AIice” is messing with his noodle a little, it’s still a bad look for Paris to get so fully infatuated with yet another piece of technology vying for his attention.

Party until the cows come home This is just a little moment, but I feel like including it. It’s just kinda mean for Tom to trick Harry into kissing a cow in “Spirit Folk.” Not only is it disrespectful to eavesdrop on his date, even if it is with a hologram (especially if it is with a hologram!), but Harry is making himself vulnerable for Maggie the Irish lass only for Tom to point and laugh at him. Be a better friend, Tom.

I didn’t think you liked the mushy stuff One more example of Tom being a dick to his girlfriend (I swear, I do like them together!) is how he constantly neglects her in “Drive.” They’re having a visceral fight about their future as a couple and B’Elanna has been earnestly planning to break up with him. So when Tom proposes, it really does feel like it’s just to get out of the argument and not because he really wants it.

The silent treatment The whole show, Tom’s character arc has focused on his desire to make his father proud of him. So you’d think when they’re finally onscreen together in “Pathfinder,” this’d come up. But no. The two characters have exactly no lines together. Even in the series finale “Endgame” when Voyager gets home and Tom has a daughter to introduce to her grandfather: still nothing! WHY?

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We’re coming in for a landing in shuttle bay. Thanks for joining us on that little joyride around the Delta Quadrant. We’re back next week with more character spotlights here on the blog, and more Enterprise watchalong episodes over on the podcast (which you’re surely following on SoundCloud or wherever you podcast). You can also hail us on Facebook and Twitter, and remember: two Delaney sisters are better than one.

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Star Trek: Voyager 1x03: "Time and Again" vs. 2x20: "Investigations"

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People who Definitely Aren’t Lying or Planning or Plotting or Scheming 

This screenshot made me laugh so damn hard I had to add it in here

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Moment of Conflict from The Shimmering Voyage Vol. 3 Ziyu Che, HOYO-MiX